The project envisages interconnecting all police stations in the country and an additional 6,000 offices of supervisory police officers across India. (Representative Image)

Pan-India database on crime and criminals CCTNS has started facilitating online services such as police verification for issuance of passport, hiring of driver, tenant and domestic help besides registration of complaints of car theft and others. Deputy Director in the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Prashun Gupta said the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) is facilitating pan-India search on complete national crime and criminal database that is accessible to the investigating officers throughout the country.

"The CCTNS is facilitating online services such as police verification for issuance of passport, hiring of driver, tenant and domestic help besides registration of complaints of car theft, obtaining copy of FIR, status of FIR besides others," he told reporters here.

The CCTNS, which was conceptualised in 2009 by the then Home Minister P Chidambaram in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, has been implemented in 14,710 police stations and 6,000 higher offices in the country.

The Rs 2,000 crore ambitious project could not be implemented in 894 police stations in Bihar and 51 police stations in the rest of the country so far due to certain technical problems, Gupta said. There are 15,640 police stations in the country.

It will also have digitise data related to FIR registration, investigation and charge sheets in all police stations.

This will lead to development of a complete national database of crimes and criminals, the official said.

The full implementation of the project with all the components will lead to a central citizen portal having linkages with state-level citizen portals that will provide a number of citizen-friendly services.

The project envisages interconnecting all police stations in the country and an additional 6,000 offices of supervisory police officers across India.

Based on the CCNTS, three states -- Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi -- have started registering e-FIR while a mobile app will be launched soon so that citizens can have access to crime, criminals and property across the country, Gupta said.

Referring to the police verification process for passports, the NCRB official said two states -- Andhra Pradesh and Telangana -- have started a unique initiative based on the CCNTNS where policeman while visiting an applicant, clicks a selfie with him or her with geo-tag (latitude and longitude) and sends it to the passport authorities for faster clearance of travel document.

Similarly, in Assam, the documentation process has been made completely online.

"These are welcome initiatives from the respective state police and we are encouraging other states to follow the example," he said.

Maharashtra Police has also made the process of granting permission to hold Ganpati Puja and Durga Puja online, Gupta said.